Why you need to capture ambisonicaudio in your next 360-degree film.

BY AIMEE BALDRIDGE

ood sound is a critical element of anywedding film, and virtual realityfootage is no exception. But if yourviewers will be able to see everything in thescene, what should they be able to hear?The simplest answer: everything. In a trulyimmersive VR video experience, viewerswearing headphones can experience soundfrom all directions, as if they’re sitting in theroom. And now the tools required to createthat kind of experience through spatialaudio are becoming widely available.

PICTURED: Sennheiser’s AMBEO VR mic is
one of a new breed of audio recording
devices designed to capture sound from
all directions to better mix with VR video.

The recently launched Vuze

VR camera from Humaneyes
incorporates four microphones
so that it captures sound that
can be spatialized with the 4K

360-degree imagery it records
with its eight lenses. Both Core
Sound and Sennheiser have
also introduced professional
tetrahedral microphones
that capture four channels of
sound to create spatial audio.

Each tetrahedral mic head
has four capsules pointed in
different directions. “Just as
with the 360-degree camera,
the microphone allows you to
capture audio from all of the
directions surrounding you,”
explains Brian Glasscock, a
user experience researcher
on the Sennheiser team that
developed the company’s
AMBEO VR mic. “So in playback
as the viewer turns their head
left, right, up and down, the
appropriate audio perspective
can be played back.”

RECORDING FOR VR

To create a cohesive audio
experience of the space for VR
video viewers, a tetrahedral
microphone needs to be placed
close to the camera. “Just as
with a 360-degree camera, the
perspective of the microphone
defines the perspective of the
viewer,” Glasscock says. “With
the 360-degree camera, you
want to place it where you
want the viewer to look. With
the VR mic, you want to place
it where you want the viewer
to hear.” Directly above or
below the camera is usually the
best option, both because the
audio perspective will match
the video’s and because the
microphone can be placed in the
camera’s blind spot. Of course,
VR camera operators have to be
especially careful not to make
noises that will be picked up
during recording, whether using
a separate tetrahedral mic or a
built-in audio capture system like